Longview to Astoria (via Cathlamet, Puget Island and Oregon 30)

56.5 miles, 2350 feet of climbing, mega-road-kill (5 snakes, 3 mice, 2 raccoons, 1 possum, 1 kitty :-(, 4 unknown animals, 2 huge blood stains sans carcass)

We awoke from a restful? sleep at the Town House Motel in Longview. It was the best of the bad and the innkeeper was certainly nice. Last night we trawled the downtown looking for a place to eat and it was an absolute ghost town - very scary. How lucky were we that Deborah spotted a restaurant called "JT's" that turned out to be the best place in town. We had a surprisingly delicious dinner. Recommendations - Don't go to Longview, but if you do, eat at JT's!

The route today is simple to navigate. Washington 4 to Cathlamet, take the bridge from Cathlamet to an island in the middle of the Columbia (Puget Island), take the last remaining ferry on the Columbia from Puget Island to Oregon and then ride Oregon 30 to Astoria.

The views of the Columbia from Washington 4 were beautiful at times. We arrived at the ferry a bit on the early side so Arn had his picture taken on the ferry before all the cars arrived - that is all they could fit - about 10!
Oregon 30 was a very busy road. Even though most of the traffic was going away from the coast, there was still way too much traffic heading towards it. We decided that the "soccer moms" of the highways are the RVs - especially the ones pulling a car. We say this because when riding on the road, our biggest fear around town is the "soccer moms." They are usually busy doing 3 things at once and our safety as bikers is secondary (who are we kidding, it isn't even tertiary). The RVs pulling cars won't move one inch to the left. They own the open road, baby, and you could be tomorrow's road kill. Let's hope not!

After a long climb at the beginning of our Oregon 30 ride, we arrived at a really nice park/viewpoint.

Thankfully, our hotel tonight is fantastic and directly under the dreaded Astoria bridge. One of the reasons why folks take our route versus heading directly to the coast from Seattle is to avoid this puppy. It is 4 miles long and has a steep incline in the middle of it. No thank-you

Tomorrow is a bit of a wing-it day. Not sure where we are going to end up. Partly depends on the legs; partly depends on the things to see. Could be a semi-rest day and only bike 30 miles to Cannon Beach or a dash to Garibaldi (about 65 miles). Our route on the coast often will follow 101 but also will utilize parallel roads when available. For example, our route tomorrow sends us along the Lewis and Clark road for 13 miles instead of 101 and if we go all the way to Garibaldi, there is another side road for 12 miles along the Miami River Road.